View from the Vantage point

Emma Gilmour aims to contest three world series rally events this year.

If all goes to plan, by November young rally driver Emma Gilmour will be only the third New Zealander to contest three world-series rally events in a year.

Next month the Vantage Team Subaru driver will race the German round of the series, followed by the Finnish round two weeks later, plus New Zealand's round in the spring.

Her chance comes through a rally scholarship she heard about at a Norwegian rally school course that aims to help young drivers.

The criteria for selection?

"I guess it's like picking a racehorse," Gilmour says. "They pick someone with the potential to make it to the top, and they hope if we do make it, that we'll invest back into the scheme to help the younger generation coming through."

Currently placed third in the New Zealand championships, Gilmour is unable to take her Possum Bourne Motorsport-prepared Subaru Impreza WRX STI to Europe, as it is needed for the Wairarapa event just days after Finnish rally.

Instead Castrol has come forward with a front-wheel-drive Fiesta ST.

It's different to her usual mount but, with seven drivers in near-identical cars at the German round, she will be able to benchmark her result.

However, it's in Finland that Gilmour faces one of rallying's most difficult events.

It used to be called the Rally of the 1000 Lakes, but drivers know it as the rally of the 1000 jumps, Gilmour says.

It's been staged for the past 55 years, and Finnish drivers have won 16 times in the past 20 years, which gives some idea of how specialised the event is.